17th June, 2015
The weather is finally clearing. Strong gusts of wind at night that sound like a freight train inside the tent, but no rain.
James Cook came ashore here in June 1770 (245 years ago this month!), spending 7 weeks repairing his ship, the Endeavour after it was holed running into the Great Barrier Reef. It was where he saw his first gangurru, which he misinterpreted as kangaroo.
Cooktown was a small settlement until gold was discovered in the Palmer River in 1872. Cooktown was established as the port for the goldfields and became the second largest town in Queensland. The legacy of that was many beautiful old buildings.
A walk around town has lots of interesting history points and the botanical gardens are a lovely cool retreat.
The boys went to the Cooktown Pub to watch the football State of Origin and Gill and I read our books.
To see photos from Cooktown CLICK HERE.